350-Year-Old High Heels, Tea and Goblets Uncovered at Irish Castle

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During a survey of an Irish castle, archaeologist Antoine
Giacometti stuck his hand into a wet washing pit beneath the
floor. He didn't expect to find anything in the pit, much less a
golden piece of jewelry dating back to the late 1600s.

"I put my hand down into this wet, mucky thing, and there was a
gold piece of jewelry with a possible gemstone in it," said
Giacometti, the archaeological director of Archaeology Plan, an
organization that preserves Ireland's archaeological heritage.
"Then we realized that [the pit] was full of choc-a-bloc."

Dozens of families have lived in Rathfarnham Castle since its
construction in 1583 in south Dublin. The waterlogged washing pit
was likely sealed in about 1700, preserving the bric-a-brac,
which even include tea leaves, Giacometti told Live Science.

Perhaps the castle's residents hid the items there during a raid,
or maybe the knickknacks were placed there for washing and were
never reclaimed. Or, a person could have dumped them into the
pit, for lack of a better storage place, Giacometti said.

At any rate, the artifacts likely belonged to the household of
Lord Adam Loftus (1625-1691), a descendant of the original
Archbishop Adam Loftus, who built the castle, Giacometti said.
The lord worked with King Charles II and King William of Orange,
and oversaw Irish state finances during a time of great tension
between Catholic Ireland and
Protestant England.

Loftus lived at the castle with his wife Lucy, son James, who
died young, and daughter Lucia, who married Philip Wharton the
infamous "Rake of Rathfarnham." The rake, a notorious rascal,
scammed his way into prestigious positions, married multiple
times (typically with bad results), invested heavily in economic
bubbles and died nearly penniless, Giacometti said.

The rake lived in the early 1700s, unfortunately too late for the
artifacts to belong to him, Giacometti said. "He was shocking. He
was famous for having loads of mistresses and getting really
drunk at parties and then removing his clothing."

Earlier this year, conservation builders and archaeologists began
fixing up Rathfarnham Castle, which has been designated a
national monument. The castle, which will soon have elevators and
improved access, has a storied past. Queen Elizabeth I tasked
Archbishop Adam Loftus, who lived there during the late 1500s,
with spreading Protestantism to Ireland. The archbishop had many
enemies, which likely prompted him to build gun loops — small
round holes in the walls — for musket fire, which pointed toward
the two entrances of the castle.

Other Irish castles at that time had arrow loops for bows and
arrows, Giacometti said.

Despite the political turbulence, the castle's inhabitants lived
rich and lavish lives, Giacometti said. His team found medieval
toilets, called garderobes, 16th century fireplaces framed in
yellow sandstone in the castle's upper floors and two massive
kitchen fireplaces that were originally thought to be cupboards.

The cache of artifacts uncovered in the washing pit reveal the
Loftus family's connections to a world awash in the latest
fashions.
Tea came to England in the mid-1600s, and it's impressive
that a family in Ireland had access to the contemporary trend,
Giacometti said.

"Ireland has always been viewed as the poor neighbor," he said.
"We were behind the times, still kind of living with the trees
when the British were colonizing the world. [The tea] kind of
puts Ireland on the map a bit."

Hidden treasures

The archaeologists also found a jar filled with a red substance,
likely an imported product containing the pigment of the bright
red Central American cochineal insect, which is
still used as coloring today.

"In 17th century portraits, they all have rosy cheeks,"
Giacometti said. "We have an ointment jar of this stuff."

A breastplate damaged by a musket provides more evidence of the
region's political instability in the late 1600s. As legend has
it, men fighting for
Oliver Cromwell against Ireland's Roman Catholics lodged at
the castle in the 1660s or 1670s, Giacometti said.

"There's a document that they ordered a set of breastplates from
London, which are the exact same breastplates we have," he said.

The archeologists also found shoes — pointy high-heeled ones for
women and square-tipped shoes for men decorated with buckles and
ribbons. "The shoes are really interesting because they didn't
have right shoes or left shoes," Giacometti said. "They used to
get them in batches of six or seven and swap them."

Members of the public can visit Rathfarnham Castle to see its
18th century plasterwork and sip refreshments in the castle's
tearooms, but those interested in seeing the newfound artifacts
will likely have to wait until 2017 at the earliest, Giacometti
said.

"Conserving the leather shoes is going to take a huge amount of
time," he said.